The adjustable mask and marker of this application is formed for use within an automatic photographic strip printer. By way of background, strip printers are devices used by commercial film processors to expose a photographic negative image upon sensitized positive paper to form the latent photographic image upon the positive paper. Development of the positive paper then produces the finished photograph or "print".
A typical strip printer receives a roll of developed negatives and advances the negative images, one by one past a light source and lens system for projecting the image. A roll of sensitized positive paper feeds the positive paper strip through the area of projection from the negative, from which area the exposed, latent image containing paper is rewound upon a second roll which is then taken from the strip printer and processed with developing types of chemicals to produce the finished photographs. After the photographs are developed upon the strip of positive paper, they are cut apart to form single prints.
In such type printers which are automatically operated and which handle long rolls of negatives and correspondingly long rolls of positives, various types of masks are used to delineate the single picture area upon the positive during the time that the image is projected thereon from the negative. In commercial production of photographs, the producer typically assembles together a large number of negative strips from a large number of customers so that the negative roll might be in the order of hundreds of feet in length, but all including photographs of the same size. Since various cameras produce photographs of different sizes, and since there are several different standard sizes, it is possible to schedule the printer to handle a roll of first one size negatives and then another, and accommodating the different sized photographs by using different size masks, i.e., with different size mask openings, to produce the exact size required on the positive. The mask opening becomes very important, particularly where the so called borderless prints are produced, that is prints which have no white border surrounding the picture area.
In addition, it is necessary to provide a mark upon each print and also upon the end of each order, i.e., a single customer's order of a number of prints, so that the cutter mechanism used to separate the developed prints can be appropriately signalled for cutting in the correct locations. Such marks must be located in an area which not interfere with the appearance of the finished print and preferably in an area which will be trimmed away by the cutter.
An example of the apparatus described above is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,807,855 issued Apr. 30, 1974 to Zajac. In such patent, a strip printer is illustrated schematically and a masking and marking system is disclosed.
The use of the marker as a means of signalling a cutter is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,813,976 to Greer issued June 4, 1974. Here, the punch slot or mark made on the strip of positive paper during the exposure from the negative, is used to signal a cutter which cuts apart the prints, including trimming away the slot mark.
The invention herein relates to a frame which can be adjusted into required length size, manually, merely by pushing the parts momentarily without the need for replacement of frame parts or the use of tools or time consuming shut downs for adjusting frames. The punch used in conjunction with this adjustable mask is a very simplified, relatively fool-proof construction for automatic operation.